The Golden Eagles use late run to reach eighth consecutive postseason NCAA appearance.

Halfway through the 2010 Southern Miss baseball season, it looked like the string of
postseason NCAA appearances
was going to be broken.

A late-season rally, along with a
win in the Conference USA tournament championship game, lifted
the Golden Eagles to their eighth
straight postseason berth, ending
in the NCAA Auburn Regional that
featured the host and No. 1 seed
Tigers, to go along with No. 2 seed Clemson and
No. 4 seed Jacksonville State.

The year saw the Golden Eagles finish with a
36-24 record, their ninth consecutive winning season
and a 14-10 league mark in which they come in
second place.

Under first-year coach Scott Berry, the Golden
Eagles got hot on the right time. With an 18-17 mark
and just two victories in their first nine league games,
Southern Miss reeled off 13-straight wins including
the school’s first three-game sweep of Tulane in New
Orleans since joining Conference USA as well taking
all three-games from C-USA power East Carolina.

Behind a powerful offense that posted a team batting average of .324 and blasted 76 home runs during
the campaign, the Golden Eagles scored 10 or more
runs eight times during that stretch.

The postseason hopes, though, rested on the
Golden Eagles beating Rice in the championship
game of league’s postseason tournament. Playing
under a new tournament format which utilized pool
play with each pool winner advancing to the championship game, the Golden Eagles posted a 2-1 mark
through the format.

The team’s championship game entitlement,
though, came courtesy of Memphis who hit a walk-off home run to beat East Carolina earlier in the final
day of pool play.

It was then the pitching duo of Todd McInnis and
Scott Copeland, along with a solid USM offensive
performance that helped the Eagles in the final to
defeat Rice 7-4 in the title game and move into postseason play.

McInnis pitched admirably for 4 2/3 innings, but
it was the work of Copeland who limited the Owls
to just walks and no runs over the final portion of
the game to lead Southern Miss to its first C-USA
Tournament title since 2003.

Copeland, who also threw eight innings of four-hit shutout baseball in the tournament opener, was
named the most valuable player of the event while
shortstop B.A. Vollmuth and second baseman Taylor
Walker were named to the all-tournament team.

Copeland, who was later drafted
in the in the 21st round of the Major
League Baseball First-Year Player
Draft by the Baltimore Orioles, finished the year with an 11-1 record
and a 3. 65 earned run average. For
his efforts, he was named Louisville
Slugger/Collegiate Baseball third-team
All-American.

Vollmuth, the team’s leading hitterwith a .386 average, to go along with
20 home runs and 76 runs battedin, garnered third-team All-America honors by theNational Collegiate Baseball Writers.

Vollmuth and Copeland were two of four first-team
all-Conference USA selections during the campaign.

The others included right-handed pitcher Todd
McInnis, who posted a 6-5 mark with a 3. 30 ERA
and Golden Eagle closer Collin Cargill, who racked
up a 4-2 record with nine saves and a 1. 75 ERA.

The team featured nine players that batted over
.300 with at least 80 at bats during the campaign.
Following Vollmuth was Walker, who posted a .365

batting average to go along with eight home runs and
57 RBI, while Adam Doleac posted a .352 batting
clip with seven homers and 57 RBI.

Mark Ellis, a junior infielder, hit .304 with seven
homers and 41 RBI, while junior leftfielder Kameron
Brunty tallied a .303 mark with nine homers and
drove in 37 runs. Dillon Day, who made the C-USA
All-Freshman team, appeared in 42 games and batted .355 with a homer 33 RBI, while Anthony Doss
added a .326 batting mark with three HRs and 24
RBI.

The Golden Eagles also used their defense as they
registered a school-record 84 double plays, marking
the second consecutive year that they have led the
nation in that category.

The program also finished in the Top 20 nationally in two other categories: hit by pitches and scoring. The Golden Eagles were hit 101 times during the
year which ranked No. 13 nationally, while the 8. 6
runs per game average was 17th-best nationally.